The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division will extend the reduced schedule on Pamlico Sound between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter and Ocracoke through April 19 as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues 24-hour dredging to combat shoaling issues in the Big Foot Slough ferry channel just outside Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor. See prior story here.
The schedule through April 19, weather permitting, is as follows:
- Ocracoke to Cedar Island: 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m.
- Cedar Island to Ocracoke: 10:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
- Ocracoke to Swan Quarter: 7 a.m., 1:30 p.m.
- Swan Quarter to Ocracoke: 10 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Dredge Murden and Dredge Merritt are currently teaming up in the Bigfoot Slough channel to perform 24-hour dredging.
On Monday (April 19), the Ferry Division will make a test run in the channel with its largest vessel, the M/V Swan Quarter.
If water depths and channel widths are at acceptable levels, the Ferry Division will resume its regular schedule on both routes Tuesday.
Shoaling occurs when sand and sediment fill into a ferry channel, making water depths too shallow and the channel too narrow for safe operation of the ferry system’s largest vessels.
For up-to-the-minute information on schedule changes on the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter routes, please follow @NCFerryPamSound on Twitter.
